Apple asked to review online transaction process

Police chief Joe Chow said on Tuesday all transactions related to 1,503 suspected credit card scams were halted following the pre-sale of Apple's new iPhone models earlier this month, with no losses incurred by cardholders, banks or the company. Chow said the total amount involved exceeded HK$30 million and police have requested Apple to review its transaction process to prevent similar cases during the pre-sale of another handset model expected in mid-October. "We have maintained close communication with Apple and the banks. At our request, all transactions involved have been cancelled. In other words, throughout the entire process, neither the cardholders whose cards were misused, nor the banks, nor even Apple, have incurred any losses," he told Kowloon City district councillors during a meeting. "We are currently continuing to investigate the syndicate behind and have requested Apple to review its transaction procedures to prevent similar incidents from occurring during the pre-sale of its other new smartphone on October 16," he added. The police commissioner said Apple had disabled its online commerce protection measures during the online transaction process, waiving transaction verification – a loophole fraudsters exploited by using illegally obtained credit card data to place bulk orders. Investigations found that scammers used virtual private networks...